Barigozzi, Francesca

Women's career choices, social norms and child care policies

[The authors'] model explains the observed gender-specific patterns of career and child care choices through endogenous social norms. [The authors] study how these norms interact with the gender wage gap. [They] show that via the social norm a couple's child care and career choices impose an externality on other couples, so that the laissez-faire is inefficient. [The authors use their] model to study the design and effectiveness of three commonly used policies. [They] find that child care subsidies and women quotas can be effective tools to mitigate or eliminate the externality. Parental leave... Show more